'Unknown Persons' In Narada FIR Spark Guessing Game

Mamata Banerjee said that the Trinamool Congress would fight the Narada case politically.

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in Odisha, planning a 'Lord Jagannath darshan' at Puri. But in Kolkata, the CBI FIR in the Narada sting case has given the opposition parties a bonus.

Not only are 12 Trinamool leaders listed in the FIR for taking illegal gratification from a journalist from the web portal, naradanews.com, the FIR also says some more unknown persons may be involved.

Who those might be has sparked a furious guessing game.

The Left, which hit Kolkata's streets today, wants all Trinamool leaders named in the Narada FIR arrested. One of them, MLA Iqbal Ahmed, allegedly promised the sting operator favours by two other party MPs. The Left has put a question mark on them.

"Abhishek Banerjee has been named in the FIR in a different, other way. Sudip Bandyopadhyay we all know about. Now the chief minister has gone to meet him. It is unprecedented," said Sujan Chakraborty, CPM MLA.

Abhishek Banerjee is Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Sudip Bandopadhyay a senior MP arrested in January in the Rose Valley chit fun case. She met him in hospital at Bhubaneswar.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, who is also named in the Narada FIR, refused to comment.

"I am not adding a single word to the stand taken by my party chairperson," he said.

Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday, "The Narada FIR is a political game. The Trinamool will fight it politically."

Meanwhile, the BJP met the governor demanding four ministers named in the FIR be removed from office at once.

Narada and the CBI have given the Opposition in Bengal a juicy bone to pick with Trinamool. But will they be able to make political capital? The Narada sting had erupted last March just before the Assembly polls, but did not affect the Trinamool.

Panchayat elections are next due next year and some smoke signals may emanate.